Fukushima

ARTICLES ABOUT FUKUSHIMA BY DATE - PAGE 5

TOKYO: When engineering professor Yotaro Hatamura took the job of heading the independent investigation into the Fukushima disaster, he said he was looking for lessons rather than culprits. He may have changed his mind. In a 507-page report published on Monday after a six-month investigation, Hatamura reserves some of his strongest criticism for Japan's atomic power regulator, the Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency , known as NISA. NISA officials left the Dai-Ichi nuclear plant after the March 11 earthquake and when ordered to return by the government provided little assistance to Tokyo Electric Power staff struggling to gain control of three melting reactors, according to the report.

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries has joined hands with Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla and Nathan Myrvhold — the former Microsoft tech honcho, maths whiz and master French chef — to fund the development of a nuclear reactor with the potential to revolutionise power generation. The Mukesh Ambani-promoted company has bought a minority stake in Terra Power LLC , based in Washington, US, and founded by Myrvhold's Intellectual Ventures. Gates is the primary investor and chairman in the company, and Khosla and Charles River Ventures are investors.

BEIJING: China has rolled out its advanced 1,000-megawatt pressurised water nuclear power reactor, ACPR-1000 which could allow it to export technology to other countries, including Pakistan, without the constraints of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues. The reactor was "independently" developed by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation , with full IPR and made its debut at the 13th China Hi-Tech Fair in southern city of Shenzhen, state-run People's Daily reported today.

New Delhi and Chennai must work together to clear the logjam that's stopped work at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. Two plants, capable of generating 1,000 mw each, are nearly ready, but construction has been stopped by agitators who have blocked access to the site. Trouble began soon after the Fukushima accident, when locals grew worried that something similar could happen at Kudankulam as well. Their apprehensions were logical and should have been addressed immediately.

NEW DELHI: Highlighting the safety features of the Kudankulam nuclear plant, former President A P J Abdul Kalam today said even a Fukushima-like accident can be avoided in the coastal project in Tamil Nadu. "Kudankulam plant has installed 154 Hydrogen recombiners across the plant which can absorb any leaked hydrogen and prevent any structural damage," Kalam, who visted protest-hit nuclear power project yesterday, said addressing international nuclear scientists here.

MOSCOW: The ongoing wave of protests over the construction of Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu could affect India's ambitious nuclear energy generation and could backfire to deprive the South Asian giant of its critical advantage over China, warns a top Russian expert. "Public fears, fuelled by the Fukushima accident and exacerbated by the regional politicians' populist slogans, may provoke a chain reaction of problems, hampering power generation development and depriving the Indian economy of its critical advantages over China," writes Konstantin Bogdanov, in a commentary released here by the government-run RIA Novosti.

NEW DELHI: India and Japan will hold their fifth strategic dialogue from Friday during which the two sides will review and discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in key areas, including civil nuclear field, trade and security. During the two-day dialogue, to be led by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Japanese counterpart Koichiro Gemba, the two sides will also discuss agenda for visit of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda here in December. "They will review all aspects of the bilateral strategic and global partnership and discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest," the Ministry of External Affairs said here today.

CHENNAI: Breaking the logjam triggered by the mass protests against the Koodankulam nuclear power project, the Jayalalithaa Government on Wednesday succeeded in ending the 11-day old fast with an assurance that the state cabinet would pass a resolution urging the Centre to halt the project. The breakthrough came during a meeting between a delegation of the core group of protesters and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, held a day after Prime Minister's emissary V Narayanasamy made efforts to defuse the situation arising out of growing protests by villagers and fishermen.

BANGALORE: Cautioning against keeping "high-investment facilities" idle, former Atomic Energy Commission chief M R Srinivasan has sought a vigorous public relations push to counter the "misinformation campaign" against the Kundankulam Nuclear Project. Noting that there is some amount of misunderstanding in the minds of the people protesting against the project after the Fukushima accident in Japan, he said, "Safety is not in anyway compromised. " "The Atomic Energy Department, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board have done extensive rechecks and they are satisfied that the circumstances that led to the Fukushima accident, are not at all likely to happen in Kudankulam," Srinivasan told PTI. But he said some people who are traditionally opposed to nuclear energy keep saying that lives would be in danger around nuclear reactors.

FATEHABAD (HARYANA): Citing Fukushima, farmers here in Haryana are vehemently opposing a proposal to set up a nuclear power plant in their midst. Fukushima was ravaged by a nuclear disaster after earthquake and tsunami devasted Japan in March, a dark prospect that farmers of Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad want to avoid. In the last three days - while Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been in Japan wooing investment for his state - the farmers are on the streets with a yet-to-be-cremated body of one of them who died while protesting against acquisition of farm land for the proposed plant.